European Commissioner Christophe Hansen's will be visiting Japan on 8-13 June 2025, accompanied by a delegation of up to 100 senior representatives of European companies/producer organisations of the agri-food sector. This trip will combine official meetings of the Commissioner with the relevant governmental counterparts, and promotion activities attended by the business delegation. The latter will include seminars on the characteristics of the local market and the consumer trends, retail and site visits, networking opportunities. The mission will also include a day at the World Expo in Osaka where the EU is present with a pavilion, and the Commissioner will open a high-level event where business delegates are invited to attend.

Only organisations representing EU agri-food producers and companies producing agricultural food and beverage products, headquartered in any of the 27 EU Member States are eligible to take part in the business delegation. Additionally, only the candidates representing products and schemes eligible for EU promotion measures (as defined in Article 5 of the Regulation (EU) No. 1144/2014) may be eventually selected to take part in the business delegation.
 

The business delegation travelling to Japan will count of 80-100 business delegates (BD) and will gather preliminary medium and large companies and producers' organisations. In case when more applications are received, the European Commission will carry out a selection, guided by the following criteria:

- Newcomers to the Japanese market, including the SMEs and newcomers to EU agri-food business missions will be prioritised;
- Companies from MS representing sectors with the highest opportunities potential from the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA);
- Overall geographical balance of the business delegation, ensuring that it represents as many Member States, in as equal manner as possible;
- Overall balance between product categories and sectors identified for this particular high level mission.

3. Costs covered by the business delegates:
The participants shall cover their travel costs for the inbound and outbound flights Europe - Japan,  accommodation expenses and VISA cost (when applies).

The organisers will cover the costs of the local transport between locations/ meetings/ activities/ venues, travel between Tokyo and Osaka, as well as meals on selected occasions.

Please note that English will be the host language in use during the business mission.

Only one person per company/organisation will officially take part in the business delegation. Other representatives may accompany the group on their own initiative but might be refused to take part in certain events if the size of the group needs to be kept limited.

The participants shall cover the costs of products samples shipping to Japan, if any.

4. Deadline:
 

The registration is open until 9 February 2025.
 

Business delegate candidates can expect to be notified of the status of their application by the end of February 2025.

Important: Please be sure of your commitment to participate in the business delegation in order not to block a place which could be made available to other candidates.
 

Question 5. Privacy Statement:

The pre-registration requires processing of personal data. Please read carefully the 'Privacy Statement' on the link and accept it with the I agree box.

You can register for the mission here.